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This Gender Alert has been developed by Afghanistan’s Operational Gender Coordination Group, with the Regional Operational Coordination Group for the Eastern Region. This Gender Alert is based on preliminary updates, information and reports received from women’s organizations and aid actors engaged with women in the Eastern Region of Afghanistan. In light of the active clashes, impacting mobility and access to affected areas, the Gender Alert has been developed with the limited data that could be collected without compromising the safety of enumerators.
“If support continues, as women staff, we will go wherever people move and keep working.”
Hostilities along the Durand Line intensified from 26 February 2026, with cross-border shelling, airstrikes, drone activity, and ground clashes affecting ten provinces. As of 2 March, an estimated 115,000 people are internally displaced across affected provinces, including 66,000 newly displaced due to the escalation.
In addition, these hostilities have further displaced thousands of households, who were already displaced by the earthquakes in Kunar and Nangarhar.
The August 2025 earthquake-related displacement affected 7,000 households across 11 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Kunar and Nangarhar, seven of which are located in active conflict areas. De facto authorities (DfA) issued evacuation orders to these seven IDP sites and one returnee settlement, requesting returns to places of origin due to security risks. Airstrikes have impacted civilian infrastructure, including the 20-bed emergency hospital, the IOM transit centre, and the Omari returnee reception centre in Torkham, as well as a health facility in Kunar province. Meanwhile, land border crossings remain largely closed following deadly fighting in October 2025, permitting only returns from Pakistan to Afghanistan.
This alert analyses the immediate and medium-term needs of women and girls, drawing on primary data from displaced women, earthquake-affected communities, and women-led organizations, mainly from the Eastern Region of Afghanistan, which exemplifies overlapping conflict, disaster-related displacement, and cross-border return movements.